International: Shinto After Bunce

With Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, with bearded Jimmu Tenno (Emperor of
Divine Valor), with the 14,000 kami (gods) of wind and mountain and
sea, Lieut. William K. Bunce, U.S.N.R., wrestled for three months.
Then the tall, slight, 38-year-old former dean of Otterbein College
(Westerville, Ohio), for three years a teacher in Japan, produced a directive
reshaping the relationship of 77,000,000 Japanese to the
Shinto faith. Last week, with not even a penciled change by Allied
headquarters, Shinto according to Bunce was promulgated in Tokyo.

The Bunce directive skirted dangerously close to violating religious
liberty....